Watch Now


Railroad inspector charged with falsifying hazardous materials reports

Tremelle Sykes is charged with filing reports on inspections that never happened

Tremelle Sykes was employed by the FRA as a hazardous materials safety inspector. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

A former Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) inspector in Texas has been charged with lying on official documents related to the transportation of hazardous materials.

Tremelle Sykes, 54, was indicted on eight counts of false statements, according to a Friday announcement from Prerak Shah, the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

Sykes was indicted Tuesday and made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Horan on Friday.

Sykes was employed by the FRA as a hazardous materials safety inspector. He was assigned to inspect northeast Texas railroads and shippers for compliance with regulations pertaining to the transport of hazardous materials such as ethanol, crude oil and other toxic or poisonous substances.


On at least eight occasions, Sykes allegedly falsified inspection reports, claiming to have conducted inspections that never actually occurred, according to court documents. 

The reports, filed over the course of six months in early 2019, covered railyard companies in Dallas, Fort Worth, Garland, Cleburne, Gunter and Saginaw.

If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in federal prison.

Click for more FreightWaves articles by Noi Mahoney.


More articles by Noi Mahoney

Hemispheric globalization could boost El Paso trade

Is ’sureshoring’ the next big thing in cross-border trade

GM to invest $1B to build electric vehicles in Mexico

One Comment

Comments are closed.

Noi Mahoney

Noi Mahoney is a Texas-based journalist who covers cross-border trade, logistics and supply chains for FreightWaves. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English in 1998. Mahoney has more than 20 years experience as a journalist, working for newspapers in Maryland and Texas. Contact [email protected]